GA pilots of the future...
A very respected PPRuNer and I dined last night, and enjoyed another great conversation. During our discussion, we both lamented the changes and priorities in pilot training. New pilots have less opportunity for hands and feet, rag wing taildragger type flying, and more glass cockpit, go fast[er], automation oriented flying. As I thought about what he was saying, I more and more realized that the notion I have of a new pilot yearning to hand prop their aircraft, then taxi out through the grass, with only a minimal VFR panel in front of them, was dying. My fellow PPRuNer drove the point home further by predicting the future of commercial passenger transport as also relying less on "pilots", and more on automation. whi needs to learn the old ways now?
Will the "flying club" as we know it now only be a thing of history in decades to come? Will our ranks not be filled in from beneath with eager new pilots wanting to learn flying of old? Will they just sit the night before, and program a flight plan, then walk out to a plane with no controls, but just a slot to load a memory card, load the flight plan, and they are just along for the ride?